"Page number(s)" can be a single page number (287), several (xii, 287, 292, 418) or a range (287–88) or any combination thereof. Do not add "Page", "pp.", etc.—just the numbers. Of course, it can also be used for non-numeric pages, for example: "f. 29", "A7", and "back cover", etc., and can also be used for non-paginated sources, e.g., "0:35:12" for a video source.

This template is for appending page numbers in Harvard referencing style (or AMA style, as an option – see "With parentheses", below) to Cite.php-generated inline reference citations. It is a solution for the problem of an article with a source that must be cited many, many times, at numerous different pages. It is an alternative to the more common method of using shortened footnotes, that does not require the reader to follow two links to see the source. The Cite.php <ref ...> footnoting system is desired to be used instead of the incredibly tedious and easy-to-break {{ref label}} and {{note label}} system (tedious and fragile in this context; the templates are not terribly difficult to use and are quite useful in other situations).

The problem of course is that a work cited 100+ times with page numbers in each appearance, with individual <ref ...>'s will result in more than 100 lines generated for the same source by <references /> (or {{Reflist}}),[*note] while using a single <ref ...>...</ref> and followup <ref ... />'s with the same name= and simply mentioning all of the pages cited, in the single line generated by <references /> could result in at least 100 pages being specifically cited in a single reference citation footnote, rendering it basically unreadable and certainly useless. Given that Featured Article and sometimes even Good Article review generally insist upon specific facts being cited with specific page numbers, Cite.php's limitations are in fact a severe problem for editors. Even more importantly, either of the two results above is a severe problem for encyclopedia readers.

This template solves this problem (perhaps temporarily, as Cite.php may be upgraded at some future date to account for this problem, in which case a bot can be created to convert {{Rp}} instances to the new, improved "Super-<ref ...>").

* Note: See this diff for a short but already reader-annoying example. Imagine it with 100+ citations to one source instead of just 13.

The example below shows {{Rp}} in use both at a first occurrence [<ref ...>...</ref>], with other references and inline superscript templates present so one can see how it looks when used in series, and at a later [<ref ... />] occurrence.

This is preferable to something like {{rp|page number?}} or {{rp|?}}, since the cleanup categorization takes place. It is preferable to simply using {{page needed}} in articles that make use of {{rp}}, since it preserves the use of the {{rp}} syntax.

Do not nest the {{page needed}} template inside the {{rp}} template; doing so introduces a stray colon and the displayed results are too small to be legible to many readers. The result of this nesting is demonstrated in the following example: <ref group="b" name="Jackson 1999" />Sjabloon:Tlp results in the undesirable: [b 1]:[page needed]

Where multiple citations occur in series, {{rp}} may result in line breaks between the citations. The "word joiner" (code &#8288;), which prohibits a line break on either side of it, may be used to prevent this.

This template should not be used unless necessary. In the vast majority of cases, citing page numbers in the <ref ...>...</ref> code is just fine. This template is only intended for sources that are used many, many times in the same article, to such an extent that normal citation would produce a useless line in <references /> or too many individual ones. Overuse of this template will make prose harder to read, and is likely to be reverted by other editors. Used judiciously, however, it is much less interruptive to the visual flow than full Harvard referencing and some other reference citation styles.